• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2006.05a
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• pp.98-101
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• 2006

As an alternative of conventional prestressed concrete (PSC) girders, various types of PSC girders are being developed and applied in bridge structures. Incrementally prestressed concrete girder is one of these newly developed girders. According to design concept, these new types of PSC girders have considerable advantages to reduce their self-weight and make spans longer. However, dynamic interaction between bridge superstructures and passing trains would be sometimes one of critical issues in these more flexible railway bridges. Therefore, it is very important to evaluate modal parameters of newly designed bridges before conducting dynamic analyses. In the present paper, a 25 meters long full scale PSC girder was fabricated as a test specimen and modal testing was carried out to evaluate modal parameters including natural frequencies and modal damping ratios at every prestressing stage. In the modal testing, a digitally controlled vibration exciter as well as an impact hammer is applied to obtain frequency response functions more exactly and the modal parameters are evaluated varying with construction stages. Prestressed force effects on changes of modal parameters are analyzed at every incremental prestressing stage.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.82 no.1
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• pp.69-79
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• 2022

This paper discusses the field testing of two single-span double-tee girder (DTG) bridges in South Dakota to determine live load distribution factors (LLDFs) and the dynamic load allowance (IM). One bridge had seven girders and another had eight girders. The longitudinal girder-to-girder joints of both bridges were deteriorated in a way that water could penetrate and the joint steel members were corroded. A truck traveled across each of the two bridges at five transverse paths. The paths were tested twice with a crawl speed load test and twice with a dynamic load. The LLDFs and IM were determined using strain data measured during the field tests. These results were compared with those determined according to the AASHTO Standard and the AASHTO LRFD specifications. Nearly all the measured LLDFs were below the AASHTO LRFD design LLDFs, with the exception of two instances: 1) An exterior DTG on the seven-girder bridge and 2) An interior DTG on the eight-girder bridge. The LLDFs specified in the AASHTO Standard were conservative compared with the measured LLDFs. It was also found that both AASHTO LRFD and AASHTO Standard specifications were conservative when estimating IM, compared to the field test results for both bridges.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.131-154
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• 2012

In this paper, it is aimed to determine the seismic behaviour of highway bridges by nondestructive testing using ambient vibration measurements. Eynel Highway Bridge which has arch type structural system with a total length of 216 m and located in the Ayvaclk county of Samsun, Turkey is selected as an application. The bridge connects the villages which are separated with Suat U$\breve{g}$urlu Dam Lake. A three dimensional finite element model is first established for a highway bridge using project drawings and an analytical modal analysis is then performed to generate natural frequencies and mode shapes in the three orthogonal directions. The ambient vibration measurements are carried out on the bridge deck under natural excitation such as traffic, human walking and wind loads using Operational Modal Analysis. Sensitive seismic accelerometers are used to collect signals obtained from the experimental tests. To obtain experimental dynamic characteristics, two output-only system identification techniques are employed namely, Enhanced Frequency Domain Decomposition technique in the frequency domain and Stochastic Subspace Identification technique in time domain. Analytical and experimental dynamic characteristic are compared with each other and finite element model of the bridge is updated by changing of boundary conditions to reduce the differences between the results. It is demonstrated that the ambient vibration measurements are enough to identify the most significant modes of highway bridges. After finite element model updating, maximum differences between the natural frequencies are reduced averagely from 23% to 3%. The updated finite element model reflects the dynamic characteristics of the bridge better, and it can be used to predict the dynamic response under complex external forces. It is also helpful for further damage identification and health condition monitoring. Analytical model of the bridge before and after model updating is analyzed using 1992 Erzincan earthquake record to determine the seismic behaviour. It can be seen from the analysis results that displacements increase by the height of bridge columns and along to middle point of the deck and main arches. Bending moments have an increasing trend along to first and last 50 m and have a decreasing trend long to the middle of the main arches.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.46 no.5
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• pp.615-627
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• 2013

One of the most common defects in reinforced concrete bridge decks is corrosion of steel reinforcing bars. This invisible defect reduces the deck stiffness and affects the bridge's serviceability. Regular monitoring of the bridge is required to detect and control this type of damage and in turn, minimize repair costs. Because the corrosion is hidden within the deck, this type of damage cannot be easily detected by visual inspection and therefore, an alternative damage detection technique is required. This research develops a non-destructive method for detecting reinforcing bar corrosion. Experimental modal analysis, as a non-destructive testing technique, and finite element (FE) model updating are used in this method. The location and size of corrosion in the reinforcing bars is predicted by creating a finite element model of bridge deck and updating the model characteristics to match the experimental results. The practicality and applicability of the proposed method were evaluated by applying the new technique to a two spans bridge for monitoring steel bar corrosion. It was shown that the proposed method can predict the location and size of reinforcing bars corrosion with reasonable accuracy.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.145-155
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• 2002

It is essential for health monitoring of a cable-stayed bridge to provide more accurate and enough information from the sensors. In experimental modal testing, the chosen measurement locations and the number of measurements have a major influence on the quality of the results. The choice is often difficult for complex structures like a cable-stayed bridge. It is extremely important a cable-stayed bridge to minimize the number of sensing operations required to monitor the structural system. In order to obtain the desired accuracy for the structural test, several issues must take into consideration. Two important issues are the number and location of response sensors. There are usually several alternative locations where different sensors can be located. On the other hand, the number of sensors might be limited due to economic constraints. Therefore, techniques such as methodologies, algorithms etc., which address the issue of limited instrumentation and its effects on resolution and accuracy in health monitoring systems are paramount to a damage diagnosis approach. This paper discusses an optimum sensor placement criterion suitable to the identification of structural damage for continuous health monitoring. A Kinetic Energy optimization technique and an Effective Independence Method are analyzed and numerical and theoretical issues are addressed for a cable-stayed bridge. Its application to a cable-stayed bridge is discussed to optimize the sensor placement for identification and control purposes.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.73 no.4
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• pp.447-454
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• 2020

Seismic isolation technology has a wide application to protect bridges from earthquake damage, a new designed bridge pier with seismic isolation are provided for railways in seismic regions of China. The pier with rocking isolation is a self-centering system under small and moderate earthquakes, and the unbonded prestressed tendons are used to prevent overturning under strong earthquakes. A numerical model based on pseudo-static testing results is presented to evaluate the seismic performance of isolation bridge piers, and is validated by the shaking table test. It is found that the rocking response and the loss of prestressing for the bridge pier increase with the increase of earthquake intensity. Besides, the intensity and spectral characteristics of input ground motion have great influence on displacement of the top and bottom of the bridge pier, while have less influence on the bending moment of the pier bottom. Experimental and numerical results show that the rocking-isolated piers presented in this study have good seismic performance, and it provides an alternative way for the railway bridge in the regions with high occurrence of earthquakes. Therefore, we provide the detailed procedures for seismic design of the rocking-isolated bridge pier, and a case study of the seismic isolation design with rocking piers is carried out to popularize the seismic isolation methods.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.86 no.6
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• pp.705-714
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• 2023

In order to establish a dynamic model test method of bridge pylons subjected to ocean waves, the similarity method of hydroelastic model test for bridge pylons were analyzed systematically, and a model design and production method was proposed. Using this method, a dynamic test model of a bridge pylon was made, and then a free vibration test on the model structure and a dynamic response test of the model structure under wave actions were conducted in a wave flume. The results of the free vibration test show that the primary natural frequencies of the structure by the model test are close to the design frequencies of the prototype structure, indicating that the dynamic characteristics of the bridge pylon are well simulated by the model structure. The results of the dynamic response test show that wave induced base shear forces and motion responses on the model structure are consistent with the numerical results of the prototype structure. The model test results confirm that the proposed model test design method is feasible and applicable. It has application and reference significances for model testing studies of such marine bridge structures.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.233-245
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• 2011

A new BWIM(bridge weigh-in-motion) algorithm using both measured strain and acceleration data is proposed. To consider the effects of bridge vibration on the estimation of moving loads, the dynamic governing equation is applied with the known stiffness and mass properties but damping is ignored. Dynamic displacements are computed indirectly from the measured strains using the beam theory and accelerations are measured directly by accelerometers. To convert a unit moving load to its equivalent nodal force, a transformation matrix is determined. The incompleteness in the measured responses is considered in developing the algorithm. To examine the proposed BWIM algorithm, simulation studies, laboratory experiments and field tests were carried. In the simulation study, effects of measurement noise and estimation error in the vehicle speed on the results were investigated.

• Journal of the Korean Statistical Society
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.351-360
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• 2000

This paper considers the problem of testing a variance change in infinite order autoregressive models. A cusum of squares test based on the residuals from an AR(q) model is constructed analogous to Inclan and Tiao (1994)'s test statistic, where q is a sequence of positive integers diverging to $\infty$. It is shown that under regularity conditions the limiting distribution of the test statistic is the sup of a standard Brownian bridge. Simulation results are given to illustrate the performance of the test.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.119-122
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• 2000

The truss bridge is composed of numerous steel beams. In long span bridges the size of beams is getting larger, so the number of plate girders is increasing instead of rolled beams. This plate girder has long welding lines at the intersection of steel plates. The improper welding at the intersection line causes the steel bridge to be structurally unsafe. In this paper the loss of member section from improper welding was measured and the experimental testing was performed to get the S-N curve from testing models with sectional losses. The improper welding resulted in the lowering of structural safety and the shortening of life cycle.